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Coordination with Goon and Bisyndetic =Gon in Dongolawi and Kenzi Proverbs

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Coordination with Goon and Bisyndetic =Gon in Dongolawi and Kenzi Proverbs Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies Volume 1 Article 5 2014 Coordination with goon and Bisyndetic =gon in Dongolawi and Kenzi Proverbs Marcus Jaeger [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/djns Recommended Citation Jaeger, Marcus (2014) "Coordination with goon and Bisyndetic =gon in Dongolawi and Kenzi Proverbs," Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies: Vol. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.fairfield.edu/djns/vol1/iss1/5 This item has been accepted for inclusion in DigitalCommons@Fairfield by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Fairfield. It is brought to you by DigitalCommons@Fairfield with permission from the rights- holder(s) and is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses, you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Coordination with goon and 93 Bisyndetic =gon in Dongolawi and Kenzi Proverbs Marcus Jaeger* 1. Introduction Both Dongolawi1 and Kenzi2 are Nile-Nubian languages, belong- ing to the Nubian language family. Along with Tama, Nyima, Nara, and the extinct Meroitic language, Nubian represents the Northern branch of the Eastern Sudanic language group.3 This group is ulti- mately part of the Nilo-Saharan language phylum. The Dongolawi language area is situated around the town of Dongola in Northern Sudan, the Kenzi language around Aswan and Kom Ombo, both in southern Egypt. In spite of being 800 km apart from each other, the Dongolawi and Kenzi languages show signifi- cant similarities to each other in all linguistic aspects. There are * My British friends Geoffrey Sutton and Derek Cheeseman improved the English grammar and spelling of the paper. Dr Angelika Jakobi read different versions of the paper and commented on them in her usual very detailed way. Prof Ahmed Sokarno Abdel-Hafiz discussed some aspects of goon with me. He impresses me by staying and working in his Nubian village environment which occurs rarely among Nubian scholars. Most of the thanks for this research belongs to the Kenzi and Dongolawi Nubians who sat with me for endless hours, inviting me for lots of cups of tea (and coffee and karkade and meals and…), teaching me their language, patiently answering my questions and making me feel at home with them. Among them I want to mention especially the Dongolawi El-Shafie El-Guzuuli from Khannaag. Some of the time writing the article I stayed with him using the opportunity to ask many questions, getting honest answers. Muhammad Hassan from Tura’ explained many of Hāmid Khabīr AlShaich’s collected proverbs. Among the Kenuzi ‘Abdel- Rahman ‘Awwad and Khālid ‘Awwad from Siyaala, Fathi ‘Abdel-Sayid from Dakka and Thābit Zāki Mukhtar from Ombarkaab were especially helpful. 1 ‘Dongolawi’ is a term used by outsiders. The speakers call their language ‘Andaandi’ (meaning ‘which belongs to us’) but do not give a specific name to themselves. ‘Oshkir’ is another outsider term applied by Nobiin speakers. I use the term ‘Dongolawi’ as in other academic papers. 2 ‘Kenuzi’ as an ethnic group and ‘Kenzi’ as a language name are also terms used by outsiders. The people call their language and their ethnic group ‘Mattokki’ (with different interpretations of the term). In order to stay consistent with the term ‘Dongolawi’ I use the terms ‘Kenuzi’ for the speakers and ‘Kenzi’ for the language. 3 Rilly, “The Linguistic Position of Meroitic.” Jaeger, Marcus. “Coordination with goon and Bisyndetic =gon in Dongolawi and Kenzi Proverbs.” Dotawo 1 (2014): pp. 93–120. Jaeger different theories about the reason for that closeness depending on historical assumptions. The early development in classification of the Nile Nubian lan- guages is summarized by Herzog: 94 Die vor 1879 gedruckten Abhandlungen schwanken ausnahmslos nur zwischen zwei oder drei Gruppen, je nachdem, ob der Author die Kenuzi und Danagla als Einheit betrachtete.4 In the 20th century due to the similarities between the two languag- es most Western scholars and their publications regard Dongolawi and Kenzi as one single language.5 The latest edition of the Ethnologue regards Dongolawi and Kenzi as separate languages, for sociolinguistic reasons.6 Many speakers of Dongolawi and Kenzi believe that they speak different languages7 although they also realize that their languages are closely related. In the following I distinguish between Dongolawi and Kenzi providing evidence of some linguistic differences between both languages. The most important study on the Dongolawi Nubian language in the 20th century is the grammar by Armbruster8 with other gram- mars written earlier. On Kenzi Nubian spoken in southern Egypt in the 20th century there are grammatical studies by Massen bach and the Kenzi mother-tongue speaker Abdel-Hafiz.9 This paper looks at coordination10 with goon and bisyndetic =gon11 in the context of adversative and contrast marking in both Dongo- lawi and Kenzi. 4 Herzog, Die Nubier, p. 24. Translated: “Studies published before 1879 vacillated without exception between only two or three [language] groups, depending on whether the writer regarded the Kenuzi and Danagla as a single entity.” The third language group Herzog talks about are the Nobiin. 5 Cf. Werner, Grammatik des Nobiin, p. 15; Bechhaus-Gerst, Sprachwandel durch Sprachkontakt am Beispiel des Nubischen im Niltal, p. 19; Bender, “Nilo-Saharan,” p. 45, and editions of the Ethnologue earlier than the 17th edition. The Ethnologue is a reference guide to all known languages of the world. During my travels I have never heard ‘Dongola’ used as a language name by any speakers of the language. Dongola plainly is the name of the most important town in the Dongola reach with Old Dongola being the capital of former Old Nubia and modern day Dongola be- ing the seat of the present governorate. 6 Lewis et al, Ethnologue. Paul Lewis, p.c.: ‘This is the first edition of the Ethnologue where Dongolawi is named ‘Andaandi.’” 7 A common exclamation among Kenuzi when listening to Dongolawi is: “That sounds like Fadidja Nubian.” Fadidja Nubian is the other Egyptian Nile Nubian language. 8 Armbruster, Dongolese Nubian: A Grammar, based on data collected in the 1910s 9 Massenbach, Wörterbuch des nubischen Kunuzi-Dialektes; Abdel-Hafiz, A Reference Grammar of Kunuz Nubian. Abdel-Hafiz continues publishing topics relating to the Egyptian Nile- Nubian languages unfortunately mainly in journals with limited availability, cf. Abdel- Hafiz, “Nubian Relative Clauses.” His most recent publication is Abdel-Hafiz, “Coordinate Constructions in Fadicca and English.” 10 Haspelmath, Coordinating Constructions, p. 4: “A coordinating construction consists of two or more coordinands.” 11 In our case =gon occurring once in each of the two coordinands. Coordination with goon and Bisyndetic =gon Besides conjunction and disjunction adversative coordination is one of the main types of coordination. Crystal definesadversative as follows: In grammar and semantics, a form of construction which ex- presses an antithetical circumstance. Adversative meaning can be 95 expressed in several grammatical ways (as ‘adversatives’), such as through a conjunction (but), adverbial (however, nevertheless, yet, in spite of that, on the other hand), or preposition (despite, except, apart from, notwithstanding).12 Crystal’s definition is restricted to the English language. Other schol- ars look at the notion of adversativity from a typological perspective and suggest more refined terms and concepts of adversativity. Both, Malchukov and Haspelmath13 begin with a general definition describing adversative coordination simply as ‘but’-coordination. Haspelmath considers the term concessive and its conceptual proximity to adversative: “In English, […] concessive clauses with ‘although’ are often roughly equivalent to ‘but’ coordinations.”14 That corresponds with Malchukov’s observation: “Many authors use the terms concessive and adversative interchangeably to refer to the function of denial of expectations,”15 adding later “that the ad- versative meaning is more general than the concessive.”16 A paraphrase of adversativity is presented by Zeevat: “The con- tent has been suggested to be false in the context.”17 exemplified by German ‘doch.’ I.e. adversativity challenges a previous assumption, corresponding to Malchukov’s ‘concessive.’ Further terms used to describe the concessive are “frustration”18 and “countering.”19 In the following I use ‘adversative’ in a general meaning with ‘concessive’ in a restricted notion, as Malchukov above. A further category is contrast denoting “The new content ad- dresses the old topic with its polarity inverted.”20 Malchukov21 em- phasises the many similarities and few differences between the two propositions which make up the contrast. The contrast itself is es- tablished between one or more of the differences. 12 Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics, p. 14. 13 Malchukov, “Towards a Semantic Typology of Adversative and Contrast Marking,” p. 179. Haspelmath, “Coordination,” p. 2. 14 Haspelmath, “Coordination,” p. 28 15 Malchukov, “Towards a Semantic Typology of Adversative and Contrast Marking,” p. 179. 16 Ibid., p. 180. 17 Zeevat, “Particles,” p. 100. 18 Longacre, “Sentences as combination of clauses,” p. 385. 19 Levinsohn, Self-Instruction Materials on Narrative Discourse Analysis, p. 91. 20 Zeevat, “Particles,” p. 100. 21 Malchukov, “Towards a Semantic Typology of Adversative and Contrast Marking,” p. 183. Jaeger Sometimes the term ‘contrast’ is used in a wider sense similar to the adversative in its general definition.22 In order to distinguish between ‘contrast’ in its general and its specific meaning Malchu- kov also speaks of “semantic opposition”23 and Levinsohn of “proto- typical contrast.”24 96 I use ‘contrast’ in its specific meaning. One way to test for specific ‘contrast’ in the English meta-language is to add ‘in contrast’ to the second coordinand.
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